Matthew Bowers’s
review published on
Letterboxd:

I never saw the film Lost in La Mancha, the documentary about Terry Gilliam's failed attempt to adapt Don Quixote to the screen, because I was worried that watching a documentary about an amazing film I'd never get to see would be depressing. I was tentative about seeing Jodorowsky's Dune, the story of avant-garde director Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed attempt in the 1970s to adapt Frank Herbert's science-fiction novel Dune into a film for the same reasons. But the acclaim surrounding this film was so positive, and the concept art from the non-existent film looked so fascinating and gorgeous, that I eventually threw it to the top of my Netflix queue to give it a look.

And I'm very glad I did! This is a lovely, wonderful film that, despite the sour note of bitterness towards the end, is actually quite uplifting and inspiring. By concentrating on the creativity and acts of creation that went into preparing Dune for the screen, and not dwelling on the failure to acquire funding, director Frank Pavich manages to make a film which, like Jiro Dreams of Sushi, is more about creativity and inspiration than the literal subject of the film. Plus, it's fascinating to see where the seeds Jodorowsky laid with his Dune proposal eventually wound up. Highly recommended.